Strathaven in South Lanarkshire

Visit Strathaven and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, was originally a weaving town 7 miles South West of Hamilton. Dungavel House, formerly a shooting-lodge of the Duke of Hamilton, was a naval hospital during the First World War and, in the later hostilities, a convalescent depot for the W.A.A.F. It was sold when the family removed to Lennox-Love near Haddington, and in July 1951 was opened as the first juvenile residential training centre for miners in Scotland. Dun-gavel was the place for which Rudolf Hess aimed in his dramatic solo flight during the Second World War.

To the West of Strathaven stands “Lauder Ha' ”, for 15 years the home of the late Sir Harry Lauder.

Avondale Castle, now a ruin, occupies a lofty isolated mound nearly surrounded by the Powmillon Burn. It was built in the 15th century by an illegitimate grandson of the 2nd Duke of Albany, who bore the title of Lord Avondale; the castle was designed on the plan of a parallelogram, with two towers at diagonally opposite corners. A fragment of the cornice shows characteristic 15th-century work.